What's on Netflix and Amazon this month – October 2019
Netflix
Rhythm + Flow, El Camino, Living With Yourself
TV
Living Undocumented
2 October
The labyrinthine US immigration system has been in the news all too often lately. Following eight families facing deportation, this timely documentary explores its destructive power and the culture of fear that an antagonistic immigration policy fosters. Exec produced by Selena Gomez, the series shows the human side of the statistics in a poignant meditation on the warped promises of the American dream.
TV
Raising Dion
4 October
A supernatural take on the single mum drama, cherubic newcomer Ja’Siah Young discovers he has formidable, space-altering powers following the mysterious death of his father, played by Michael B Jordan. The special effects come out in force, but at heart this is a moving depiction of grief, parenthood and memory.
TV
Big Mouth
4 October
A show that is just as concerned with coming of age as it is with, well, coming, the joyous gross-out comedy about teens going through puberty returns for its third season. This series will introduce the show’s first pansexual character, tackle toxic masculinity as the boys age and even provide a Queer Eye crossover. Voicing 25 different characters, Nick Kroll is joined by Maya Rudolph, John Mulaney and Jordan Peele in this Emmy-nominated animation.
TV
Rhythm + Flow
9 October
X Factor eat your heart out! Netflix have assembled a crack team of hip-hop talent hunters in the form of Cardi B, Chance the Rapper and TI, who are taking to the streets to find America’s next rap star. Focusing on the judges’ hometowns of New York, Chicago and Atlanta, the talent show will take us through the well-trodden arc of nervy first performances, touching back stories and triumphant studio performances. Fresh from her role in Hustlers, straight-talking Cardi B is sure to be endlessly quotable.
FILM
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
11 October
We last saw Jesse Pinkman speeding away from his traumatic past with Walter White towards a hopefully jail-free future when Breaking Bad ended back in 2013. This film sequel picks up with Pinkman – played with heart-wrenching earnestness by Aaron Paul – still on the run and looking for an escape. Helmed by series creator Vince Gilligan, expect the usual slurry of twists and appearances from old favourites Badger and Skinny Pete.
TV
Living With Yourself
18 October
You might hope to leave a spa feeling a better person, but for Paul Rudd’s Miles he leaves as a completely new version of himself in this existential comedy from Daily Show producer Timothy Greenberg. Old Rudd (a glum, bored office-worker) and new Rudd (a perky, fresh-faced clone) must battle it out for their existence and for the affections of their wife, played by Aisling Bea. It’s a zany premise but one played with a downtrodden depth by world-weary Rudd.
TV
Daybreak
24 October
Mad Max meets Mean Girls in this post-apocalyptic take on the high-school drama. We meet the cliques of Glendale school before and after a nuclear explosion where cheerleaders, jocks and nerds are transformed into gladiator-esque warriors, complete with axes, flamethrowers and a serious serving of gore. Matthew Broderick reprises a touch of his role in Election as the school principal, but expect slashers rather than singalongs.
TV
The Kominsky Method
25 October
Ageing star Sandy Kominsky (Michael Douglas) and his longtime agent Norman Newlander (Alan Arkin) return for a second season of the gentle comedy on finding fame in an industry that prizes youth above all else. Wry gags abound with a guest turn from Jane Seymour as Newlander’s long-lost love. Feelgood TV at its breeziest.
Amazon
Goliath, Mr Robot, Modern Love
TV
Goliath
4 October
“You privatised a public resource for your own financial gain.” No, not Karl Marx, but anti-hero lawyer Billy McBride (Billy Bob Thornton), in the third season of courtroom drama Goliath. The money-hungry giant to be slayed this season is a billionaire rancher, played by Dennis Quaid, whose greedy commercial farming practices lead to the death of Billy’s old friend. Thornton is on top gravelly-voiced form taking the wealthy to task.
TV
Mr Robot
6 October
Fresh from winning an Oscar for his teeth-baring depiction of Freddie Mercury, Rami Malek returns for the final season of hacker drama Mr Robot. With Elliot Alderson closing the last season on a series of cliffhangers surrounding the shadowy and appropriately-named Dark Army, the final outing promises to be filled with speed-typing and Matrix-levels of screen code.
TV
Modern Love
18 October
If you fed a bot a diet of Richard Curtis romcoms, Hallmark cards and NBC’s This Is Us, then asked it to write a script, it’d look something like Modern Love. A syrupy eight-part anthology series adapted from the much-loved New York Times column, each half-hour episode follows the story of a specific essay. The starry ensemble cast includes Andrew Scott (of Fleabag “hot priest” fame), Anne Hathaway, Dev Patel, Tina Fey and John Slattery. And watch out for Ed Sheeran in perhaps his most cringeworthy cameo role to date.
BBC iPlayer
The Apprentice, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Motherland
TV
The Apprentice
Episodes available weekly from 2 October
You can visualise Alan Sugar’s finger pointed aloft just at the mention of its name: The Apprentice. Back for another season – its 15th – 16 suited and booted candidates are primed once more for the boardroom, with gargantuan egos, business jargon and wheelie bags in tow. Expect corny catchphrases (“if you cut me, I’ll bleed ambition”) and those hallowed closing words: “You’re fired.”
TV
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK
Episodes available weekly from 3 October
Lip-sync for your life as the search for the UK’s first drag superstar begins. Ten British queens will sew, sing and snatch their way through various absurd challenges, all with the hope of being the inaugural winner. Regulars RuPaul and Michelle Visage will be joined by talk show veterans Alan Carr and Graham Norton, plus a host of celebrity guests, from Andrew Garfield to Maisie Williams. Fabulous.
TV
Motherland
Episodes available weekly from 7 October
Middle-class motherhood is placed in the not-so flattering spotlight for the second season of Sharon Horgan’s BBC Two comedy Motherland. As the school year starts, a high-flying new mum called Meg attracts the attention of the parents. How does she keep it all together? Our heroes Julia, Liz and Kevin soon find out when she takes them on a raucous night out.
Best of the rest
ER, Catherine the Great, Watchmen
All4
ER
It has been 25 years since ER graced our screens and without it, TV might not have been the same. Breathless, punchy and endlessly dramatic – as well as introducing the world to a young George Clooney – the hospital drama is now available to binge again or discover anew in all 331 hours of its glory. Still a must-watch.
Sky Atlantic/Now TV
Catherine the Great
Helen Mirren has played the Queen, but now it’s time for her to take a historical dive into the notorious reign of 18th-century Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great, and her steamy love affair with Lieutenant Grigory Potemkin. Mirren plays Catherine with an austere grandeur, navigating her recent ascendancy to power through the deposing of her husband Peter III and already fending off challenges from rivals and her own son. An opulent, enticing chunk of period drama escapism.
Sky Atlantic/Now TV
Watchmen
Billed as a sequel to Alan Moore’s cult graphic novel, this HBO series picks up 30 years after the 1986 dystopian comic book ends. In this new future, mobile phones and the internet are banned, as are masked vigilantes like the Watchmen. Regina King stars as the uncompromising detective Angela Abar, tasked with investigating a white supremacist group inspired by the now-dead Rorschach. This is murky, nihilistic action at its best.
Facebook Watch
Sorry for Your Loss
A muted and deeply touching look at the attempts of young widow Leigh (a disaffected Elizabeth Olsen) to find purpose in life following her husband’s sudden death, the Facebook Watch drama returns for its second season. Unsentimental yet tender, this is a clear-eyed take on grief and its messy consequences.
Facebook Watch
Limetown
Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie, creators of the 2015 hit podcast Limetown, have adapted their fictive tale of missing persons for the small screen. Jessica Biel plays investigative journalist Lia Haddock on a quest to solve a decade-old mystery: how did 300 people living in a neuroscience research facility suddenly disappear? Each episode promises a cliffhanger ending and heavyweight turns from stars like Stanley Tucci. A promising alternative to your news feed.